Adding stills to a concert and lot loosing the sync

Question

Hi all, Thanks for your attention to my dilemma. I have finished editing a school concert of my daughter singing. Now that I'm done, she has given me some stills, which I've added to iPhoto. She would like them added to the concert video. How do I de-link the audio and video of the concert, add stills in various places and not loose the synchronization between the audio and video? I've seen that I can extract the audio from the video, but I can't figure out how to insert the stills without "pushing" the video and loosing my sync. I'm sure it can be done. I just someone to point me in the proper direction.
cheers,
Jack

Answer 1

The problem here is that you have a finite length of audio which, to keep in synch, has to match visuals of the same duration.
One thing you can do to extract the audio so that you have the soundtrack in a separate timeline. Now decide for how long you want each photo to appear. Let's call it 5 seconds. Edit out 5 seconds of one of the clips of the video and add the photo. hat will retain the total length of video and keep you in synch.
Alternatively, have you considered having the photos appear in a corner of the screen while the video is playing, in other words: picture within picture. This can be done using Quicktime, but is a bit fiddly although worth the effort.
When editing the video of my younger son's wedding (the part where his older brother gives the infamous Best Man Speech), I managed to insert old photos of incidents referred to in his speech as he was making it, to the intended embarrassment of all concerned!
Here is how to do it:
Organize the video clips and/or stills that you want to superimpose on to your main video clip, by having these in separate, individual iMovie projects (no matter how small). It helps if these are in the exact length/time you want later.
Now start with the clip in your iMovie project on to which you want to superimpose one of more smaller video clips or stills. Lets call it Main Clip. Export this (share) to Quicktime Pro in DV (full quality). make sure it has the same aspect as before (Quicktime tends to default to 4:3. If you want 16:9, read on).
In Quicktime, with this project open, select File ~ Open File. Select the iMovie file (in your movies folder) of the first clip/still you want superimposed. This will open in its own QT window. Select Edit ~ copy. If it is a movie clip then select all ~ copy (or you will only get one frame!). Switch back to the Main Clip window, and click in the scroll bar where you want the extra clip/still to appear. Choose Edit ~ Add to Movie.
You can repeat this as many times as you like, if you want to build a 'Video Wall', i.e. have several superimposed clips/stills on the same Main Clip.
Do not worry that the new clip overlaps or covers up the Main Clip, at this stage.
Choose Window ~ Show Movie Properties. The Properties Dialogue appears.
You will see a list of video (and audio) tracks. Track one will be the Main Clip, track 2 your new added (superimposed) clip. Click track 2, then click visual settings. From the Scaled Size pop-op menu, choose percent. Then type 50 into the first box. If Preserve Aspect Ratio is turned on you won't need to type 50 into the second box. You have made the pasted footage appear at one quarter its original size. The inset is now hugging the top-left corner of the Main Clip. If you want, you can type numbers into the Offset Boxes to shove it away from that corner (there are 72 pixels to the inch).
If your original Main Clip was required in 16:9, unclick (de-select) Preserve Aspect Ratio, and type in the relevant numbers in the two boxes, in Video Track 1.
PAL (for Europe):
Standard DV (4:3) 788 x 576
DV Widescreen (16:9) 1050 x 576
NTSC (for the USA):
Standard DV (4:3) 720 x 528
DV Widescreen (16:9) 874 x 480
This will not affect video track 2, but if that is also wanted in 16:9 repeat for that track.
You can superimpose, 3, 4, or more such 'overlaps' on the same clip, and spend a happy afternoon tapping away for each track in the Offset Boxes until you have got them all in the right place! You can even overlap them, if you can remember (or note down - hire a secretary to take notes) which track you want on top etc.
Save the completed QT file. Import the completed file into a new iMovie project. Import this into the original iMovie project, substituting the old clip you copied to QT as Main Clip for the new fancy clip you have made.
A tutorial on this subject is available here:
http://web.mac.com/jrwalker4/QuickNotes/QTPro/Entries/2008/5/24_Tutorial012.html
Have fun!